At one time, the majority of written communication between people and businesses was conducted through mail sent via the post office. Included with the mail was often junk mail. Although often an annoyance, junk mail was relatively manageable for most people because, for example, the time and expense to create junk mail kept the quantity of junk mail to a manageable level.
Today, the majority of written communication is conducted via electronic means, such as email. The relative ease of creating junk electronic mail, or spam as it is often termed, has vastly increased the amount of spam created and received compared to traditional mail. Dealing with the vast amount of spam is not only a great annoyance to users, but can be quite costly to both users and businesses. For example, employees may spend time dealing with spam that could have been spent attending to more productive tasks. Further, some businesses spend extra capital and require additional resources to handle spam that could have been spent in a more beneficial manner.